Clean Up
by Arctimon
Summary: After saving the city from almost certain disaster, Hiro and the others have a few things that need to be addressed. This series of one-shots takes place after the events of "Countdown to Catastrophe". Chapter 7, Trust (starring Karmi, Captain Cutie, and Red Panda) is now up! Come enjoy the finale!
1. Results

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 is the property of Disney Animation. Also, this story is assuming you have already watched "Countdown to Catastrophe" so if you haven't watched it and don't want to be spoiled, stop reading now._

 _...OK, I warned you._

* * *

 _ **Chapter 1 – Results**_

"I would also recommend taking some sort of photonics class next semester. Even though your specialty is robotics, new discoveries are made all of the time in the field. It's a field that will be beneficial to-"

She noticed her student slouched over in the chair in front of her desk. With a sigh, she smacked the top of the counter hard, jarring him from his sleep.

"Mr. Hamada!"

"What?" Hiro careened back, his chair falling with him. "I'm here; what happened?"

"Mr. Hamada, this post-semester meeting is suppose to help you plan out your classes for the immediate future. It is _not_ meant to catch up on your sleep schedule!"

"Sorry, Professor Granville." He picked up the chair off of the ground. "I was up rather late last night."

"I'm going to assume that you were doing some after school studying, correct?"

"Not...exactly."

Granville closed her laptop, her stern face facing him. "Mr. Hamada, I agreed to keep your 'extracurricular activities' a secret. I did not agree to have them affect your future at this school. Although now that I take more careful thought about that, it does appear I am far too late in that regard."

Hiro grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, it wasn't really that. I mean, the others did patrol last night. But I was actually...at the bay.

Her face immediately softened.

"I tried to find some sign of...him. Baymax and I must've spent almost the entire night there."

"And?" Granville whispered.

"Nothing. No sign of him. Even with us nullifying the shockwave of the star, the damage to his base was so great that a lot of the tech was completely destroyed. The chances of someone surviving that amount of destruction is-"

Hiro saw Granville's sad frown and quickly stopped. "I mean, we'll keep looking. There has to be something out there."

"Mr. Hamada, I am going to give you some advice, and I pray that you actually heed it."

He looked up at her as she took a deep breath. "Sometimes...we are better off not knowing the answers that we are looking for."

"Huh?"

"I do not expect you to understand now. I urge you to give it a little thought before you continue on your search."

There was a soft knock at the door that jolted both student and teacher out of their conversation. "Come in."

Hiro, now looking down at the floor, did not hear who the new arrival was even as they walked up to the desk. And then she opened her mouth.

"Am I...interrupting something, Professor?"

"Not at all. Mr. Hamada and I were just wrapping up our discussion on his possibilities for next semester."

"I heard they need a new night shift security guard. He could do that."

Hiro shot her a mean look. Luckily for her, Granville was busy fetching something in her desk, so she either didn't hear her or ignored her comment.

"Now that you are here, Karmi, there is something I wanted to discuss with the two of you."

His second look was one of confusion, one which she returned along with a shrug.

Granville sat up straight in her seat. "I just wanted to say how proud I am of both of you and the accomplishments you've had this semester. I know it has been a somewhat...trying time these past few months, but I know that I couldn't be more thankful for having the two of you as my students. Karmi..."

She turned her face to Karmi, who was steadfastly growing redder. "Your past teachers as well as Professor Callaghan spoke very highly of you when I first appointed here. I am happy to say that you exceeded all my expectations. Getting funded by anyone at such a young age is almost unheard of. I look forward to what you have to offer in the future. Mr. Hamada…"

Her attention was now on Hiro. "We had a rough start at the beginning, didn't we? But I am pleased to see that you have been able to strike the _balance_ (the emphasis was not lost on him) between the difficult tasks that you were assigned and the rigors of a college student. You even managed to teach me a few things along the way. I know that your brother would be very proud of you."

"That's...very kind of you, Professor," Karmi said.

"Thank you," Hiro added. "But I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did without everyone here. You, Professor, my friends...and Karmi."

Granville raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh?"

"Well, it's just..." And this was the part that was going to get him in trouble, and not by the woman in front of him. "Karmi and I...we've had our ups and downs this semester, but it was really nice to have someone to relate to with this sort of thing. Even with everything that happened, and even though I have Wasabi and Honey Lemon and everyone else...I'm glad I have someone like Karmi in my circle."

"Well, I am very happy to hear that. I'm sure she appreciates you in the same way."

Hiro could almost feel the weight of Karmi's stare on the top of his head. He made a point to seem very interested in one of Granville's paintings on the wall.

"In any case, Mr. Hamada, we are at the end of our meeting. As a reminder, you will still have access to your lab and the facilities between semesters. Although I imagine you might be...preoccupied with other things."

Yup, still there. The stare.

"Now, if you will excuse us, Mr. Hamada, Karmi and I need to start on her own meeting. I'm sure we will see you around, but do try to enjoy some time off, OK?"

"I will," Hiro said as he got up from his chair. He scooted over to the door as quickly as possible, opening and closing the door in one fluid motion.

Whew. That was close. Hiro patted the back of his head to make sure Karmi's laser eyes didn't drill a hole into it. Nope. Clear.

He made off down the hallway, heading back to his lab. Maybe his friends would still be around and they could go on patrol.

"Hey, Hiro!"

Or maybe he could get stopped and get throttled by Karmi.

He turned around and saw his fellow student coming in his direction. He raised his arms automatically in defense. She pulled up short, pausing to catch her breath.

"You walk way too fast, you know that?"

"I've never really noticed." Hiro brought his arms down, now feeling safe. "Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't-"

He didn't get much further than that, because Karmi wrapped his arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug.

...Well, this was different.

Hiro slowly patted the back of her ponytail, not quite sure what to do. Thankfully, Karmi pulled away at that moment…

And then proceeded to punch him in the shoulder.

"Ow!"

"You could have told me you were going to do that, Genius Boy."

Hiro rubbed his sore shoulder. "In case you haven't noticed, I didn't really have a plan most of the time."

"Uh huh."

He looked behind her down the hallway. "Don't you have a meeting to get back to?"

"In a minute. I told Professor Granville I had to do something first?"

"And that something was this?"

"Yeah." Karmi tucked a stray hair behind her ear. "Thank you, by the way. I didn't deserve all of that praise."

"You do, though. You're one of the smartest people here."

"And who's the smartest?"

Hiro flourished in his direction. "Well, obviously that would be me."

Karmi shook her head with a smile. "I'm going to make you eat your words, Hamada."

"Bring it then."

She leaned in, their faces almost touching each other. Her breath washed over him as she issued the threat.

"Oh, I intend to."

...And then she realized what she was doing.

" _OKGottagobye!_ " She ran off, her hair waving behind her.

Hiro stood there for a moment, his shoulder still aching. His next sentence echoed in the empty hallway.

"I am never going to understand that girl."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** The first season of _BH6_ was good for the most part. It was by no means perfect.

The finale, on the other hand, was awesome. I am very excited to see what season 2 is going to offer.

But, in the meantime, we're going to have to hold ourselves over. That is where _Clean Up_ comes in. It's going to be a few chapters (probably 5) consisting of stories taking place after "Countdown to Catastrophe". And no, not all of them will be Hiro/Karmi. Even this one was suppose to be more Granville-centric, but it came out a little different. Not complaining, though.

Looking to update on Tuesdays as well, so people won't have to wait as long.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time.


	2. Waste Not

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 is owned by Disney Animation. Also, don't play with knives._

* * *

 _ **Chapter 2 – Waste Not**_

"OMG! Did you see what they're going to do for us in Fish Town? They're going to build a statue in honor of Big Hero 6!"

"Fred, did you just really use 'OMG' in a sentence?"

"Wasabi, this is a big deal!" Fred wheeled his chair all the way across the laboratory, landing next to Wasabi at his toolbox. "This is just the next chapter in our superhero story!"

"When do we get to the part of the story where the heroes take a nice relaxing vacation?"

Before Fred could respond, Go Go threw open the door to the lab, holding a long cardboard box.

"Go Go, back me up on this one!"

"Fred, whatever it is, I'm not going to back you up on it." Ignoring Fred's "Darn it!", she made her way over to Wasabi's workstation. She threw the box down onto his toolbox, wrecking the neat and orderly display of his instruments.

"Hey, why are you pawning your stuff on me?" Wasabi yelled.

"It's not mine; it's yours."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, weird, right?" Go Go took his wrench and began to make adjustments to her bike. "I ran into the mail guy and he told me to give this to you. Guess it was ironic I was heading this way."

"I have all my school mail forwarded to my apartment."

"Well, clearly someone didn't get the message."

Wasabi took a closer look at the box. It was very long, probably about three feet. The clanging sound coming from it hitting his bench told him it was definitely not something soft.

"Is it cake?"

He turned to Fred, who was now nearly perched on his shoulder. "No. It's something hard. And long."

Even over the sound of the wrench and Fred's breathing, he could hear Go Go's snort from across the room. "Children." He pulled out his retractable knife as he made his way to one end of the box. "I work with a bunch of children."

"Speaking of people who aren't children but look suspiciously like them, where _is_ Hiro?" Fred asked.

"He's in his end-of-semester meeting with Granville. So given everything that's happened, who knows what she's going to say?" Wasabi made a cut in the top, pulling open the flaps. "Maybe she'll give him a-"

"...Give him a what?" Go Go prodded.

"Uh, guys."

Confused, she came over and peered into the box. "Whoa."

"Oooh! Lemme see!" Both Wasabi and Go Go got shoved out of the way as Fred came over to look inside. "Hey! Is that what I think it is?" He reached in the box, only for his hand to get slapped away by Go Go.

"Fred, are you nuts? You can't just bring those out! There's a rule against weapons on campus!" Go Go wheeled around to Wasabi. "Back me up here."

There was no response.

"Wasabi?"

Both Fred and Go Go turned to the physics student, who had a small piece of paper in his hand. "Where did you get the note?"

Wasabi tapped the top of the box at the plastic sleeve ripped open.

"What does it say?"

"Nothing important." He crumbled the paper up and tossed it in the open trash can. "I have to be somewhere. Go Go, can you hold on to these until I get back?"

"Umm...yeah. Sure."

As soon as Wasabi left, Fred and Go Go made a dive for the trash can. Luckily, since their friend was such a neat freak, the trash was emptied on a daily basis, so only the note was in there. Fred made it there first, grasping the ball in his hands.

"Our first suspicious note! I should frame it in my house as a token of our superhero timeline!"

"Yeah, you're a weirdo," Go Go said, folding her arms.

Fred unpacked the paper as she peered over his shoulder. It was now painfully obvious what got Wasabi so spooked; the only thing on the paper was a stylized profile picture of a woman with blue hair, an almost demonic grin on her face.

* * *

"She's right this way." The prison guard walking with the geared-up Wasabi said. The two were halfway down a dimly lit hallway, passing by several unoccupied cells. "Had to put her in solitary after she escaped last time. But she really hasn't said much since she's come in. Mostly just meditating."

"And she hasn't sent anything out since she's got in? No mail or anything?"

"Nope. Nothing."

Wasabi rubbed his chin in thought. "Weird."

"How so?"

"Oh! Nothing. I was just...thinking out loud."

They finally reached the end of the hallway. Room 99 was contained there, marked with a sign: _Solitary Confinement: ONLY AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ALLOWED_.

"I'm not...doing anything wrong here, am I?" Wasabi asked.

"Oh, no." The guard waved his hands at him. "When you called and asked to speak to her, there was never any question. What better person to talk to her than you?"

"Trust me, I'm not here because I want to. I'm here to get some questions answered."

"Well, if you need anything, knock." The guard waved his ID at the module, which clicked open the door. "I'll be right outside."

"Thank you, sir."

Wasabi stepped inside, the door closing behind him with a thud. The room was rather big; he couldn't even see the ceiling, the purple and black bars of the cage extending into the shadows above. Inside of said cage was the suspect in question. She had her back turned to him as he walked up.

"I was wondering when you were going to come visit."

From her vantage point, there was no way she could have seen who it was. Then again, this was Momakase, the ninja/chef/mercenary that had a knack for this sort of thing. Wasabi decided to go with the direct approach.

"Why did you send me your blades?"

"That's what you start with? Not even a hello?"

"You're lucky I'm not asking _how_."

Momakase chuckled. "Or you'll do what? I doubt you and your band of heroes will do anything worse than the drivel that these guards are putting me through."

"It could be worse, actually. You could end up like Obake."

For the first time, she shuffled her body around so she could face Wasabi. "What? Being pampered in some public wing of this facility? Trying to recruit fellow criminals for a new scheme? I don't really want to see his smug face right now."

"…Your base came apart when we stopped the star explosion. Obake didn't make it out."

Her face, for a moment, looked shocked. Then it quickly went back to deadpan. "A pity, really. He really was a genius. Too bad it got the best of him."

Wasabi raised an eyebrow. "That _genius_ almost wiped out the entire city. And you were going to let him do it. At least Globby had _some_ common sense."

Momakase said nothing, looking at the floor. He made his way to within arm's reach of the cage. He figured that was as close as he was comfortable getting. "Why did you send me your blades?"

"I would think that would be obvious."

"Pretend it's not."

She got up from the floor and walked up toward him, stopping right on the edge. "Even though you are young and unfiltered, you have some actual skill. You needed your teammate to take me down, but I see... _potential_."

"Lady," Wasabi started, "If you think I'm actually going to use those things or if I'm going to let you teach me, you can forget it."

"What's going to happen when you don't have your fancy blades in the heat of battle? As have happened some times before?"

"How do you-"

"There are a lot of things I know about you." Momakase leaned forward. "Obake hid some things, but I can tell what kind of person you are: meticulous, precise, thorough. Someone who doesn't like things to go to _waste_."

Now Wasabi has no response. Sensing victory, the woman smiled. "In that regard, you are very much like me. And you know I'm right." She turned around and resumed her position on the floor. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I would like to be left alone now."

Having nothing left to add, he made his way back to the door. He was just about to knock…

"Oh, I did forget to mention one thing."

His hand stopped an inch from the door.

"Since my supply appears to have gone the way of Obake, I have one set of blades left. Find them, and they are yours. Even if you don't want them, I'm sure you will want to take them out of the public eye so that no one gets hurt by them."

"Where are they at?"

"Oh, you know."

Wasabi turned back to her, who was still facing the opposite wall. "I don't. Tell me."

"They are...where the street has no name."

"Really? A riddle?"

"You have your eccentricities. I have mine."

"You know you're never getting out of here, right?" Wasabi asked. "Giving me riddles and sending me on a goose chase isn't going to change any of that."

"Oh, I have no intention of leaving here. Not yet, anyway," she replied. "And it's not a goose chase. They are there. You just have to find them. You're a smart boy. I'm sure you can figure it out."

"What's the catch? Are they rigged to explode?"

Momakase shook her head. "My dear boy, I may be a villain and a criminal, but I'm not _that_ evil. Sometimes there are no ulterior motives. There are no underlying schemes. Sometimes all you see is the nose on your face. Keep that in mind."

Frowning, Wasabi knocked on the door, and the guard opened it for him. "Did you find out anything new?" he asked.

"Not really. I need to get out of here. Thank you for the time."

"Oh. No problem." The guard locked the door behind him. "Anything to help Big Hero 6."

Even with the seriousness of the situation, Wasabi couldn't help but smile.

* * *

" _So,_ _it went about as well as you expected_ _?_ "

"Yup. All she did was say a bunch of nonsense and tried to make me her 'student'."

Hiro rubbed the bridge of his nose before speaking again. " _Ugh, it's almost like Obake_ _all over_ _again._ "

Wasabi had left the prison, gotten into his car, and immediately called Hiro to explain the situation to him, since he had not been at the lab. Hiro had listened with interest as he was going over Baymax's camera footage from the last week.

"I just don't understand," Wasabi said as he removed the last of his armor. "'Where the street has no name'? Don't all streets have names?"

" _Not unless they're making it because of construction."_ Hiro tapped his chin and turned off screen. _"Hey Baymax, can you scan the city and see if there are any unnamed roads near construction?_ "

He heard the sounds of the scanner kicking into gear, and then his voice ring from the background. " _I detect several unfinished roads near construction. Seventy-five percent are located at the northern part of the city._ "

"That's way too many. Especially up north? Why would she travel that far just to make a point?" Wasabi's phone vibrated. "Hang on, Honey Lemon just sent me something."

The picture came up, and he grinned. His friend was still sending him instances on social media about their escapade in Fish Town, and the smiling faces of the kids were present in every single picture he scrolled through.

Wait a minute…

"Hiro, what about Fish Town?"

" _Huh?_ "

"Wouldn't it make more sense for you to hide something that's close to where your plan is? She has to have a separate place other than Obake's headquarters."

" _Baymax?_ "

The scanner went off again. " _There are no routes in Fish Town that are currently unnamed._ "

"It's not going to be that obvious. Remember who we're dealing with." Wasabi turned the key to his car. "Have Baymax send me a list of streets there. I have an idea."

* * *

The sun was just beginning to set as Wasabi pulled off of the main road in Fish Town. The list forwarded to him laid in the passenger seat, with almost all of the names crossed out...except one.

"She wasn't referring to a street with no name." Wasabi got out of his car and looked up at the street sign above him. It was faded, almost illegible, but the two words up top matched the ones on his list: Nanashi Street.

"It was literally a place called 'No Name Street'."

" _It's a good thing_ _you know more Japanese than I do._ "

He peered down the road and saw a single wooden cabin, barely visible from the road. "I think I may have the place. I'm going to go see what I can find."

" _Do you_ _think you'll_ _need any backup?_ _I can send a message to Fred and Go Go._ "

Wasabi walked up to the doorway and made the decision. "Nah, I think I should be fine. But I'll let you know if anything comes up."

" _OK, I'll be here at the cafe. Later._ "

He put the phone back into his pocket and pulled out a flashlight. Clicking it on, he brought his hand toward the doorknob.

"Wait a minute. Am I really being this stupid? What if she has it booby-trapped?" He ran his light around the frame, trying to see any wires or boxes. Nothing.

"Now that I'm thinking about it. why would she booby-trap her own door?" He decided to take a chance and open the door. It creaked open, a fine layer of dust falling on his head. "Yuck!" He weaved his hands through his hair to get rid of it and stepped forward.

There was not a lot of space in the cabin, and only a few things to fill it up: a mattress in one corner (presumably for sleeping) and an old wooden desk with nothing on it.

"Hm." Wasabi made his way over to the desk, checking each drawer. Nothing in the set on the right. Nothing on the left. There was only the thin middle one left.

Bingo.

Inside was a small blue and grey knife roll, emblazoned with Momakase's profile, the same one on her note. The mesh on the outside was over a thin clear sheet of plastic. Wasabi gave it a touch. "BoPET. Insulated to block the heat signature of graphene. Good thing we didn't have Baymax scan for it; he wouldn't have been able to find it anyway."

He brought it out onto the table and unrolled it. Everything was included: a cleaver, a chef knife, a bread knife, a carving knife, and two smaller knives (presumably the boning and pairing knives). He noticed a flap right above the tips and took a peek at the pocket inside: four identical chef knives were hiding back there.

"Man, she sure has some good taste. Can't deny that." Wasabi rolled up the kit and tucked them under his arm to head out.

RING!

He almost jumped out of his pants as his phone vibrated. Quickly pulling it out, he brought it up to his face. "Hello?"

" _Are you busy?_ " Honey Lemon's face came into view. " _Hiro has—where are you at?_ "

"I'm at Fish Town, picking up a set of knives that Momakase, who is currently in jail, said I could have."

" _...What?_ "

"Yeah, that sentence was just as weird in my mouth as it was in my head," Wasabi said as he closed the door to the cabin.

" _Actually, Fred did mention something to me about you going to talk to her, but...well, you know Fred."_ Honey Lemon replied. _"He was going on and on about his comic books and timelines and whatever. Then Go Go grabbed the phone and ended the call."_

"Probably because he was talking her ear off. Luckily, assault is illegal everywhere, so she probably just stuffed him in his chair or something."

" _So did you find them?_ "

"Got the package right here," Wasabi said, holding the roll up.

" _What are_ _you going to do with it?_ "

This had been something he had been thinking about every since he talked to Momakase, and an immediate answer hadn't come to mind. "I...don't know. Realistically, they should go to the police."

" _Well, before you make up your mind, Hiro called me. He wants to show us something. I'm on my way there now._ " Honey Lemon said with a frown. _"He...didn't sound good on the phone."_

"I'll be there in a little bit. See you there."

Wasabi got into his car and took one last look at the cabin. His focus turned to the knives in his passenger seat. Momakase was right about one thing.

"It certainly would be a waste."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Man, I should really learn how to finish these things sooner.

There is an eerie similarity that I find between Obake & Hiro and Momakase and Wasabi. Obviously it wasn't explored to the degree Obake & Hiro was, but I like the idea of her "passing on" her tools to him. It also brings him a little closer to his comic counterpart.

This could possibly be undone if we see Momakase in Season 2 with her blades, but hey. It's fiction.

Also, I have no idea how this chapter became almost double the length of Chapter 1. I even left some stuff out at the end (an encounter with one of the kids of Fish Town). I might add that in another part.

Speaking of which, what exactly has Hiro all wound up? That is the subject of the next chapter, which will hopefully be coming out early next week.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time.


	3. Record

_**Disclaimer:** I do not own Big Hero 6. You'd think that after reading the first two disclaimers that it would start to set in, but apparently not._

* * *

 _ **Chapter 3 – Record**_

"OK. I'll be here at the cafe. Later." Hiro hung up his phone and resumed his typing on his laptop.

" _Why was Wasabi requesting_ _the infrastructure of Fish Town?_ "

"He's following a lead on something involving Momakase."

" _Is Momakase not incarcerated?"_

"She is," Hiro said, "But Wasabi's just tying up loose ends."

Baymax turned his head both left and right. " _I do not see any object that has an end that is loose._ "

"It's...a figure of speech. Don't worry about it."

Hiro walked across the room to his robot, holding a bright yellow chip. "Alright, Baymax, this chip should be able to recover some of the memory you lost when you had that chip inside you. Your visual receptors were still functional when that chip was in you, so hopefully that data is still intact." He popped open Baymax's chip holder and inserted it inside. "Now, let's give it a minute and see what happens."

He opened up Baymax's video player and started the playback. Static interference was starting to build up on the screen. "Yeah, the last clear picture I have is when you went under Obake's control in my room. If we find out anything from this video, we may be able to find out what happened to him."

" _I have reservations about this."_

"Baymax, I'm just looking at the video. Nothing's going to happen."

" _ **Well, I can't have you running off, but I thought a chat might be nice."**_

Hiro stopped, puzzled. "Wait a minute. When...when was this?"

" _He had temporarily released me from my controlled state. As Noodle Burger Boy was on the floor, I can surmise that he had deactivated him shortly prior to this conversation._ "

"Why is his head glowing?"

" _My diagnosis was a growth in his temporoparietal lobe, located between-"  
_

"Yeah, I know where that is, Baymax," Hiro interrupted. "I can see you scanned him. Did he know about it?"

" _Correct."_

"And he did...nothing about it?"

" _I am unable to come to that conclusion because I was not present during his accident."_

Hiro, now with a sense of dread, continued the feed. After Baymax's diagnosis, not much of note happened. He did have to say it was very weird watching himself from the viewpoint of his nemesis. Unfortunately, he had to relive the event of neutralizing the star explosion all over again.

The screen shook and as debris started to fall in the base, Hiro could see Obake wildly look around, the left side of his face permanently glowing. _**"My new city. My dream."**_ He reached for Baymax's chip port, undoubtedly removing his interface from him. _**"Go to him. Tell him...I still think we would have done great things together."**_

Hiro unconsciously reached for his phone, dialing the first person he came across. It rang twice, and the other person picked up. Before they could even get a word in, he cut her off.

"Honey Lemon, I need you to get everyone to the cafe immediately," he said, his voice shaking. He hung up the phone and set it down on the table.

" _Hiro, your heartbeat is erratic, and your temperature is rising. My diagnosis is that you are flustered."_

"Play the rest of it, Baymax."

" _Will it result in a positive experience?"_

Hiro said nothing, as he looked up at the robot. Baymax stooped for only a moment, and then pressed the play button himself. The genius saw Baymax in the video turn toward the exit and then back at Obake, who had taken residence in the chair in front of the monitors, his back to him.

" _ **I am a personal healthcare companion. I cannot leave until you say you are satisfied with your care.**_ **"**

Hiro leaned forward as his nemesis said his final words.

" _ **I am satisfied..."**_

* * *

" _ **With my care."**_

Hiro hit the stop button on the recording. It was so quiet inside the garage that you could hear a pin drop.

His summoned friends had varying looks of shock on their faces. Honey Lemon has both of her hands over her mouth. Wasabi, fresh off his quest to find Momokase's blades, was gripping the blade roll so tightly his knuckles were turning white. Fred and Go Go could only stare with widened eyes.

"OK, someone's going to have to explain all of this to me."

And there was Fred to break the silence.

"OW!"

And there was Wasabi to hit him in the arm.

"So...he was dying?" asked Honey Lemon.

"I can't say for sure," Hiro replied. "But according to Baymax's heat scan, there was definitely something bad there."

"All of that stuff he was handling probably wouldn't have helped either," Go Go whispered. "I've read studies about electromagnetic stimulation and the brain. If he had implanted something after that accident Granville talked about...it would've done the trick too."

"So what exactly are we going to do with this?" Wasabi chimed in.

"We have to tell-"

"No."

Honey Lemon was aghast. "Hiro, Granville-"

"Granville will never know about this. _No one_ will know about this other than us." Hiro closed the video player and turned to his friends for the first time. "This does not leave this group."

"Don't you think she would want to know what happened?"

"To be honest, I don't really care what she thinks at this point."

"Well, that settles it!" Fred exclaimed. "Out of sight, out of mind! I am famished! You guys wanna come with me to Noodle Burger? My treat."

"Umm...yeah, sure." Wasabi glanced over at Hiro. "You wanna come, Hiro?"

"I'm fine. I'm going to stay in tonight."

"Call us in case you change your mind," Honey Lemon added as she walked off, the rest of the group behind her.

Now alone, the boy genius turned back to Baymax, who had stayed silent in the exchange, but for good reason: he was making a backup of the video, and all audio receptors were disabled until the process was finished.

"You could have just deleted it."

Hiro sighed. "You know, I wish at least one of my friends would actually not sneak up on me."

"You could have deleted it and none of us would have been the wiser." Apparently Go Go had no interest in his anecdote. "Why did you show it to us?"

He did not respond immediately. The footsteps from Go Go became louder as she walked up to him.

"I get it. You just saw your worst enemy go down in a blaze of glory. And he may have had something that _may_ have impaired his judgment. So what? Does that change anything?"

Hiro got up from his chair and attempted to walk over to his printer. Go Go blocked his progress.

"Move out of my way."

"Not until you answer me. Does this change anything?" She spread her arms out wide. "He was going to destroy the city. He was going to wipe out everyone. I don't care what he had in his head. And you shouldn't either." She grabbed his shoulder. "We did what he had to do. _You_ did what you had to do."

"Then how come I don't feel good about it?"

"Do you feel sorry for him?"

That was not a question he was expecting. "If we had known about it..."

"Then what?" Go Go retorted. "We all would've walked off into the sunset happy?"

Hiro looked at the ground. "I...don't know."

"...You're going to make me do it, aren't you?"

"Do what?"

The next thing he saw was the white of her shirt as she pulled him into a hug. She awkwardly patted the top of his head, mimicking Baymax's most common stress-relieving technique.

"Speak of this to anyone, and I'll murder you myself."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Heh." Go Go pulled him away with one last pat. "Now c'mon. Everyone's waiting."

"Give me one sec." Hiro pointed over to Baymax. "I need to finish this up real quick."

"Well, hurry up. You know how Fred is with his Noodle Burger."

Hiro walked over to his robot as Go Go made her way back to the car. Luckily, the backup was complete and he was awake from his sleep mode.

"Baymax, I'm heading out with everyone. Here is the thumb drive with the data, OK?" He put the drive into his hand. "Put that up in my room when you go upstairs. I'll see you tonight."

" _Have a good time."_

As Hiro made his exit, Baymax looked down at the drive in his hand. After a moment, a circle of light wrapped around the device. His eyes started to glow as the data began to calculate. He reached over to a stray drive on the desk and held it in his other hand.

" _Replicating data..."_

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Note to self: Don't watch the Overwatch World Cup while trying to write fanfiction. You tend to get distracted a lot.

Again, this fic was suppose to end differently, but due to time and writing constraints, I had to cut this short. That drive will come back into play later.

Is the title the verb or the noun? ...Yes.

My original intention was to update twice a week, but that's clearly not going to happen, so it'll stay once a week. Speaking of next week, we'll focus on someone that hasn't had much attention so far.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time.


	4. Haunted

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 The Series is owned by Disney Animation. The concept of waking up at 3 in the morning should be patented by me for all of the times I've done it before._

* * *

 _ **Chapter 4 – Haunted**_

It was a sight that was becoming all too familiar.

The brown eyes.

The black hair.

That hat he wore all the time.

She would be surrounded by fire. So much pain. So much destruction.

After Obake's defeat, she thought that it would go away. Her mind would be at peace. No such luck.

They just kept on coming.

He walked up to her, seemingly impervious to the flames. That stare. It got her every time.

"You said you'd take care of him."

"I am." She would always reply.

"Like you said you'd take care of me?"

She would never have a response to that question.

And then, almost as if time was slowing down, he would back away into the fire. He would be out of focus until he could only see his eyes.

Those eyes.

"Tadashi, wait!"

Now the eyes were beginning to glow red.

This was different.

"Tadashi..."

He came forward again, but he was no longer the same. His skin, his outline, everything was entirely black. The kind that nothing could escape from.

But his eyes...his eyes were still that blood red.

And he was coming right at her.

" _Tadashi!"_

Honey Lemon sprang up in her bed, her brow in a cold sweat. She had to take a few deep breaths to steady herself.

It was just a dream. But it was _that_ dream.

She glanced at her alarm clock. 2:15 AM. Yeah, this was definitely not going to work. She had to try to get back to sleep.

But what if _he_ showed up again?

"Honey Lemon."

The pillow slammed right into Go Go's face, but thankfully it only landed on the ground with a small _thud_. Honey Lemon sheepishly grinned at her roommate. "Sorry, Go Go. Did I wake you up?"

"I think you woke the whole block up." She stretched her arms out as she stifled a yawn. "You had the dream again, didn't you?"

"What are you talking about?"

The very act of pretending to be obtuse did not have the desired effect on Go Go. "Honey Lemon, I'm not stupid."

She pulled the covers over her head and turned away from her. "Don't worry about it, Go Go. I'm sorry for waking you up. Just go back to sleep."

Her stubborn demeanor was shuttered by Go Go grabbing her wrist, practically, then literally pulling her out of bed. "Yeah, we're not going back to bed until we talk." She pulled her over to the table and pushed her down into her chair. " _Sit._ I'll make some tea."

A few moments later, a steaming mug was in front of Honey Lemon, who instinctively clasped it between her hands. "I didn't know you drank my tea."

"I don't." Go Go took her seat, her own cup in front of her. "But I'm not drinking coffee at this hour. I'd go crazy." She leaned forward in her chair. "Now, _spill_."

"There's nothing to talk about." She looked down at her reflection in the liquid. "I just had a bad dream."

"You said his name."

...Well, that was unexpected. "How did you-"

"Did you forget that you talk in your sleep?" Go Go tapped her finger on her cup. "You've been having the same dream from the sounds of it for the past few weeks. Ever since Halloween."

Honey Lemon didn't response, choosing instead to continue her staredown with her tea.

"Hey." Go Go dragged her chair closer, straddling it in her trademark style. "C'mon. Talk to me. It's not like you've ever had trouble with that before."

"Leiko..."

Go Go's eyebrows was in danger of shooting through the roof. "Wow. In all the years I've known you, I don't think you've ever called me by my actual name. This must be serious."

"Ever since we had those lenses in us and Hiro ran into that fake Tadashi, I've been having…nightmares. More often than usual. They've always been there, ever since he died, but it's just been worse recently. I thought that after we beat Professor Callaghan that they would go away, but..."

Go Go stayed quiet, not sure what to say.

"I just keep thinking to myself...if I had just been there..."

"Don't."

Honey Lemon looked up to see her friend's stern face. "Don't do this to yourself. You're better than that."

There was a solid minute where the two roommates were lost in their own thoughts. Go Go knew she had to tread very carefully here; besides Hiro (for obvious reasons), Honey Lemon had been the one hit the hardest with Tadashi's death.

"Do you...think about him?"

The answer came out almost immediately. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't think about him."

More silence. Go Go sighed.

"Look, Aina..."

Honey Lemon's eyes narrowed.

"Hey, you first-name'd me. I get to first-name you. Equivalent exchange." Seeing her friend's soft smile, she turned serious. "Look, I'm going to say something, and just keep in mind that I'm saying this as your friend, OK?"

She set her mug to the side as she turned to face her roommate. "What happened to Tadashi was a tragedy. And it was heartbreaking. And it was every bad adjective that you can think of. But...it doesn't change the fact that it _happened_. Your brain is so caught up with your guilt that you're not letting yourself move on. It's only been a few months; I get it. But you can't let this control you."

"I can't," Honey Lemon whispered. "I can't just turn it off. I'm not like-"

"Me?"

"I...didn't...mean that."

"No, I get it." Go Go smiled at her. "It's not like one of us had a crush on him or anything."

" _What!?_ "

"Honey Lemon, you are by far the most obvious person I know. You didn't think that I would figure it out?" She started counting up on her fingers. "All the times he would come visit us in our labs and you would be the one to immediately go over to him and talk about your latest chemical concoction? When we went out to eat and you would specifically want to sit next to him? Those weird...googly eyes you would give him when he talked to you?"

The Hispanic girl slunk in her seat. "I was that transparent, huh?"

"Yeah." Go Go took a sip of tea. "Just like you were to Tadashi."

Honey Lemon's eyes grew double the size. "Oh no."

Go Go put a finger to her mouth, trying to jog her memory. "He came to me in the lab one day. I don't know where you were; I think Wasabi and Fred had dragged you off somewhere. He was asking me about you and how weird you were acting. He straight up asked me if you liked him."

"Go Go, _please_ don't tell me you told him."

"No, I didn't." She pointed to herself. "I may be cruel, but I'm not an animal. I told him if he wanted to know, he should ask you himself."

"How long ago was this?"

Go Go took a deep breath. "I don't know. Like six months ago? It was almost right before Hiro showed up."

Honey Lemon's face went more downtrodden. "Well, he never said anything to me."

Not hearing a response, she looked up at her roommate, who was pointedly looking at the far wall. "Go Go. What did he say about it?"

Nothing.

"Go Go, you have to tell me what he said."

She pinched the bridge of her nose, annoyed. "Oh man. You are just like Hiro. Always have to know everything."

"What do you mean?"

"After Hiro showed us that video in the garage, I stayed behind and had a chat with him. I asked him the same thing I'm going to ask you: would it change anything? Is me telling you what he said going to change any of the things that happened? And I think you already know the answer and you just don't want to admit it."

"That's it, then?" Honey Lemon said. "You want me to just forget about it? To forget _him_?"

"No," Go Go replied. "I want you to _remember_ him."

"What? I...don't understand."

The Korean girl took one last swig of her tea before she rested her cup on the table. "Remember him for what he was, not what he could have been. I know that's a tough thing to do, but you can't look at the past and think of every possible outcome that _could_ have happened. He was your friend. He was a friend to all of us. There are days where even I can't go to sleep because he's on my mind. But...I think of what he is to me and...it makes things better.

"And you may call that being cold or heartless, and I guess I can see that on some level, but I prefer to call it being realistic. I would go crazy otherwise. And I don't want to see you go crazy. I really don't."

Honey Lemon wiped a tear away from her eye, her tea long forgotten at this point. "I just...I miss him so much."

"I know. I do too. But you don't have to look far to get a reminder of him."

Go Go pointed to the fridge, and the blonde craned her head to see what was on the front: a group picture of the six of them with Hiro at the front, smiling for the camera.

Err...five. Baymax literally couldn't. But Hiro's grin was big enough for the two of them.

"That kid," Go Go continued, "is probably the smartest one out of all of us. And he's going to do great things. What did we say to each other after Tadashi's funeral? The four of us swore that we would do everything we could to keep him safe. And we're not going to stop that now."

She stopped, now realizing that Honey Lemon had rested her head on her shoulder, pulling her into a half hug. "You know, I've already met my hug quota for the week."

"Make an exception."

Go Go patted her opposite shoulder. "There, happy?"

"Now I am."

As Go Go took their cups to the sink, Honey Lemon made her way over to her bed. The night (morning?) had been an emotional one, but thankfully with everything that was said to her, maybe she could get some shuteye knowing her mind was a little more at ease.

"Aina."

Honey Lemon looked up at her roommate, who was now leaning against the counter facing her.

"He didn't want to ruin what the two of you had," Go Go said slowly. "He wanted to take his time and see what happened between you guys before going forward. I think it was his way of troubleshooting the situation. Whether he actually _liked_ you...I don't know. Honestly. But I think he valued your friendship too much to do anything more." She cocked her head slightly. "Does that help at all?"

"Yeah, it...really does. Thank you."

Go Go nodded, making her way back up the stairs.

"You're like that guy on TV, who tries to solve people's problems. McGoo or whatever? You'd be good at it, Go Go."

Her head peaked out from over the banister. "I just read a lot. My dad's a psychologist and has a weird habit of looking at the ten thousand layers of everything underneath the sun. Guess I picked up a few things."

"I can see it now." Honey Lemon stretched her arms out over her body. " _Coming up next: Dr. Leiko Tanaka on how to live a better life!"_

"Yeah, right. Like people would want to watch that." Go Go turned to go back upstairs, but stopped. "But thank you for using my real name for the commercial instead of my _actual_ real name."

"What?" The Hispanic girl smirked. "You mean E-"

"Every time you use that name, you owe me a hundred bucks. Remember that." Mirroring her grin, she disappeared to her room. ""Now, let's get some sleep. We got that statue commencement in Fish Town tomorrow, and it wouldn't look good for a third of Big Hero 6 to nod off during the ceremony. G'night."

"Night."

Honey Lemon fluffed her pillow, laying her head on top of it. Almost immediately she could feel her eyes getting heavy. Her hands instinctively went on her stomach, coming to rest on the soft kitten laying on her body. Sleep was just about here-

Her eyes snapped open.

Wait a minute.

"Go Go?"

There was the sound of her bed creaking and a deep sigh. " _What?"_ she said, a little exasperated.

"Since when do we have a cat?"

...Followed by a moment of silence, two feet hitting the floor, and the steps creaking as Go Go's head reappeared. "Star! How'd you get downstairs?"

Now she was more confused. "Since when does the cat that I didn't know we had have a name?"

And then she saw the three little faces poking from below her roommate's feet. She could feel the sparkles erupting from her eyes.

" _And since when have we had several adorable kittens?"_ she squealed.

Go Go scratched the back of her head, looking sheepish. "Yeah...looks like Tadashi's not the only thing I didn't tell you about tonight..."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** About the name...Honey Lemon's real name in the comics is Aiko. As she was given a race lift in the cartoon, I didn't think that name was good enough for her here, but I wanted to keep it something similar. Thus...Aina. Plus it means love or affection in Japanese. Seems somewhat appropriate.

Also, I like both names for Go Go (Leiko and Ethel), so the head-canon that I have had Leiko as her "wanted" name and Ethel as her actual name. Blame her mother.

This took a very long time. This is a story that was suppose to come out after "Obake Yashiki" and reference the episode a little more, but it became somewhat different in the process.

Let's just say...I have a little experience with talking about relationships with people at three o'clock in the morning.

Next chapter will have the ceremony I've been mentioning in a couple of the chapter before: the commencement ceremony in Fish Town. Will someone surprising show up? Will Hiro trip over his words? Will I ever figure out that asking questions in the author's note gets me nowhere? Tune in to find out!

Read and review, if you like. Until next time.


	5. Credit

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 The Series is owned by Disney Animation. I do not need it. The only thing I need is a freaking drink._

* * *

 _ **Chapter 5 – Credit**_

The day had finally come.

On an appropriately overcast day, Fish Town was about to have the most eventful afternoon in its quiet history.

The stage was set.

...No, literally, the stage was right there in the middle, just in front of a giant mysterious something covered by a large gray tarp. Press from all around the city were huddled in front of that, waiting for the event to begin and making small talk. A much larger group of fans were making a much larger amount of small talk a few feet behind them.

But there was one important question to ask…

"Why are you here, Professor Granville?"

She looked over at Fred, hidden in his costume. "Two reasons, Mr. Frederickson. I sit as a member of the city council that voted on putting this statue together. Your family is _also_ part of the city council, if you remember. I don't recall ever seeing you there."

"Well, I don't mean to brag, but I was too busy saving the world!"

"Clearly."

Honey Lemon came up on Granville's other side. "Professor, are we going to start soon? It's starting to get dark."

"Mr. Hamada specifically requested this time period, which also ties in to the second reason why I am here."

A sudden fangirl scream came from the crowd as Hiro and Baymax came flying into view. Hiro waved to the fans as Baymax made his landing, moving toward the rest of the team on the stage. Luckily, a lot of the young kids of the town took the opportunity to use the robot as their own personal playground, giving the young man an opportunity to go relatively unnoticed.

"Hey, everyone," Hiro said to the group. "Sorry I'm late; I had to take care of a couple of things first."

Go Go folded her arms. "You knew this was happening today; what was more important than this?"

"You'll see in a second." Hiro walked over to Granville at the podium. "Did you bring it with you, Professor?"

"Indeed I did." She took a very small pouch out her coat pocket and handed it to him. "And I presume that you have returned the proper one back into my possession, Mr. Hamada?"

"Yeah, it's back." Grasping the bag, he leaned forward to whisper to his teacher. "You know, Professor, you probably shouldn't call me by my real name out in public."

"...I was not aware that you had a proper alias, Mr. Hamada. Or would you prefer that I call you by your other name of Captain Cutie?"

Hiro's face flushed as the rest of the team snickered behind him. "Unbelievable. How do you even know about _that_?"

"When you have a semester as busy and rambunctious as the Institute did, we try to find the lighter side of things as often as possible. That is not something that is exclusive to the students." Smirking slightly, she turned away from the now embarrassed Hiro and tapped one of the several microphones in front of her. The crowd noise fell away to Granville's voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, as a ranking member of the San Fransokyo City Council, it is my privilege to present this statue honoring our city's superhero team, Big Hero 6!"

She nodded to an attendant off to the side, who pulled the cover off to reveal a magnificent sight to everyone: the full team standing heroically in front of a miniature version of Globby as the wall, his face full of determination. In the center was a giant orb laying on the ground, presumably to simulate the star explosion.

"Wow, they really went all out for this, didn't they?" Wasabi looked at his stone duplicate as the crowd applauded.

"Yeah, I really like the detail they put in this." Honey Lemon squinted at the top of her counterpart. "But I'm not really that tall, am I?"

"...We're definitely going to have a talk about that once we get out of here," Go Go sighed.

After the applause died down, Granville returned to the podium. "As we gather here today, one of our heroes has taken the liberty of giving our tribute a special modification." She then turned to Hiro. "Whenever you're ready."

The teen genius opened up the pouch his teacher had given him before, and the rest of the team saw its contents for the first time. It was a very tiny version of Hiro's energy amplifier, barely the size of a battery. He walked over to his statue and bent over, putting it into a tiny hole down near its feet.

Almost immediately, the orb in the center began to levitate. It stopped just over their heads, artificial smoke spiraling around it and acting as an artificial base for it. Finally, the orb started glowing a soft purple hue.

The press's affirmation was accompanied by the hoots and hollers from the adoring fans. Under cover of the noise, Granville leaned forward to a confused Go Go. "Mr. Hamada wished to make some adjustments to this memorial, so he requested the energy amplifier to make a miniature copy. I relented on the basis that I keep the prototype until it was ready."

"Don't you think that's a little dangerous? We know what that thing is capable of."

"Of course, but I trust Mr. Hamada with the process. He is the one who originally made it, after all."

The crowd died down once again, and Granville resumed her place at the lectern. "This statue will serve as a reminder to all of our heroes from that fateful day. And may this beacon provide light and comfort to the people of this town...or at least until the charge runs out on the battery."

A few small laughs came from the crowd. Granville turned to her left, waving in Hiro's direction. "And now I would like to turn it over to the leader of Big Hero 6, who would like to say a few words to everyone."

She stepped off to the side as Hiro came forward. As he prepared to talk, Honey Lemon tapped her professor's shoulder. "I wasn't aware he was going to say anything, Professor."

"All of this was at his request, Ms. Rodriguez. I did not ask why." Granville nodded her head in the genius' direction. "But perhaps we'll find out."

"Hey, everybody." Hiro waved to the crowd, who responded with a flurry of camera bulbs. Rubbing the spots out of his eyes, he continued on. "As Ms. Granville said, I've made it so that you can adjust the brightness of the monument if needed. After all, we don't want to blind anyone. Also, it might be further useful since your lighthouse is out of commission."

More laughter spilled from the audience, causing Hiro to relax a little bit. "But in all honesty, this is such a great honor. I think I speak for all of the team when I say thank you for this. I'm sure Globby, wherever he is right now, would be glad as well."

Hiro paused to catch his breath. His next sentence probably wasn't going to go over very well with the people, and he didn't mean the ones in front of him.

"I do want to take a moment to acknowledge one more person that deserves some credit for what happened that day..."

He turned his head slightly behind to glance at his professor, and then went on.

"And that person's name is Robert Aken."

A confused murmur began to disperse through the crowd. Hiro could tell without looking that his friends shared similar looks of bewilderment.

"I don't expect a lot of people to know who that is. Robert Aken was a student at the San Fransokyo Institute of Technology. He was the first person to develop and study the amplifier technology that we used to help save the town. If it was not for him...the outcome of that day would have been very different."

Hiro paused again, the still image of the collapsing lair from Baymax's video coming forward. "Unfortunately, Mr. Aken could not be here today. He is a very...private person, and did not want his presence to take away anything from the town or us. But I know that he and his daughter Trina..."

"Wait." Wasabi leaned sideways into Go Go's ear. "Did he just say what I thought he said?"

She nodded slightly, not responding.

"They would be very happy to hear that his work affected the lives of so many people in a positive way." Hiro stepped back and waved to the crowd. "Thank you guys so much."

The light bulbs went off once again, but luckily Hiro turned to avoid them. Instead, he was now in the view of the team and Granville, who all had various looks of concern on their faces.

"Look, I can explain-"

"You don't have to explain anything, kiddo." Go Go patted the top of his helmet. "We understand." She nodded in the direction of their professor, who was now kneeling down next to him.

"That was a very brave and selfless thing you just did, Mr. Hamada." Granville lips were pursed, and the clench on her papers was almost airtight, but the smile on her face was genuine.

"Yeah." Hiro couldn't help himself, though. "I mean, it's true, right? If he hadn't tried to make it twenty years ago, I don't know if I would have been able to come up with our solution to stop him. I...would like to think that Bob Aken and Obake are two separate people, right? That's how we all should treat him."

"I think that is a very mature way of thinking about it."

"Captain Cutie!"

The shrill cry from behind them could only belong to one person. Hiro glanced through Fred's arms to see the top of Karmi's head trying to climb up onto the stage.

"Oh geez." Hiro looked up at Granville, but the unasked question, it seems, already had an answer.

"I was perfectly willing to be flexible with you when it came to the amplifier. I believe the best course of action here would be for me to recuse myself." With that, she walked off, a slight smirk on her face.

"I...don't want to deal with this right now. Wasabi, can you-?"

"Yeah." Wasabi turned and headed off in her direction. "I got it."

Hiro took the opportunity to take in his surroundings. Baymax was back in the clutches of the kids, but they had a new jungle gym in the form of Fred. Honey Lemon and Go Go were deep in talks with one of the reporters, Granville closely behind them.

And Wasabi? Well, he was talking to Karmi. He could see through his legs that Karmi kept glancing in his direction. He also, in response to something Wasabi said, mouth the words "Is he OK?". No doubt she saw the look of anguish when he mentioned Obake's civilian name.

She was only concerned. Nothing nefarious. Maybe they could even have a conversation without her hyperventilating.

"Hey." He motioned to Wasabi, who craned his neck to face him. "It's...fine. I'm coming over now."

Wasabi raised an eyebrow in objection, but Hiro shook his head. Content, he walked off, leaving the boy genius with his number one fan.

"Hi, Captain Cutie!"

"Hi, Karmi." Hiro remembered just in time to switch to his superhero voice as he bent down to her level. "Did you like the speech?"

"Yeah, it was so humble and awesome and super and _everythingaboutitwasgreat!_ "

"Woah!" He held up his hands. "Breathe. Take a second."

"Sorry! It's just that I don't really see you except when you're fighting a giant monster or saving my life."

"Well, we're here now." He took a look around at the crowd. "Although you have to share me with everyone else here."

Karmi bent forward, bringing her face much closer to his. "Chop Chop mentioned that you weren't feeling that well. Is everything OK?"

"Oh." Hiro looked away for a moment. "It's just...it's sort of difficult to come back here. Luckily, everything turned out OK in the end, but...when you're in the moment, it's hard to think like that."

Karmi clutched her fist close to her chest. "I know that we're not really...that close, but if you ever want to talk..."

"I know where to find you," Hiro smiled.

Her own smile widening, she gave a gentle squeeze to his hand and ran off, her ponytail flapping behind her. Hiro watched her walk into the crowd, his smile not leaving his face. Sometimes, that girl-

The immediate flashes and deluge of questions knocked him out of his daydream.

"Do you have any comment about the alleged incident on Akuma Island?"

"Will you be opening to adding additional members to your team?"

"Was that your girlfriend?"

"Unbelievable," Hiro muttered under his breath as the reporters hovered around him. "That better not get into the papers tomorrow."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE** : Spoiler warning: it's going to be in the papers tomorrow.

Oh, and I'm not even going to talk about the last name I gave Honey Lemon. You don't have to look far to see why I chose it.

Back on my Year in Review journal, I originally said I was going to add a few more chapters onto this story. While I will still be adding some stuff, I will regrettably have to cut a couple of chapters off of this. It's not for any malicious reason; it's merely because I have other stories that I want to work on and get out. The ideas behind said chapters will be integrated into other stories. That is also part of the reason why this chapter is coming out so late; reworking the outline of this story threw off the timeline a little bit.

So I will have two chapters after this one. One will be Hiro/Karmi related, and the other one will showcase a member of Big Hero 6 I haven't really gotten to yet.

And no, I'm not talking about Mole.

Hopefully one of them will be coming out on Friday.

Read and review, if you like. Until next time.


	6. Recommend

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 The Series is owned by Disney Animation. Please consult your own personal healthcare companion before reading this story._

* * *

 _ **Chapter 6 – Recommend**_

 **Enclosed, you will find my list of recommended team members for this endeavor. As this case is time-sensitive, I would appreciate a response in a prompt fashion. If you have any questions, I will be available on campus for the entirety of this week.**

 **Best wishes,**

 **Grace Granville**

Professor Granville rubbed her eyes as she finished up the e-mail. It was another late night at SFIT, and she was busy wrapping up a few things before heading out. Thankfully, she didn't have to rush the late stragglers out of the building, because they had left previously.

She was hoping Hiro and his fellow classmates would perhaps take some free time away from the campus since the semester was over, but no such luck. Oh well. The pursuit of knowledge didn't seem to stop in the off-season.

Granville turned her chair to look out her window at the skyline. As crazy as things had gotten over the past few weeks, it was nice to have an evening with no break-ins, killer robots, or a giant star threatening to engulf the entire city.

Speaking of which…

She could barely make out the trail of the robot's thrusters as the red armored robot flew over the school. It seemed like such a long time ago when she found out her students were the superhero team known as Big Hero 6. And even when she made the decision to keep their secret, when her former student attacked the school for the third time, that knowledge had to be relinquished.

Now they were all on the same page, and their relationship had returned to teacher and student. But if things went according to a certain kid genius' plan, perhaps-

The sounds of fabric started to come from her office door. Maybe that was for the best; her recollections were getting long-winded and the e-mail was done anyway. "Come in."

The door opened slightly, an oblong robot head with two black eyes appearing around the corner. " _Hello._ "

Granville recoiled back, a little surprised. "Baymax. What are you doing here? And where is Mr. Hamada? I was under the impression that he had left for the day."

" _Hiro is currently on a blimp...with Karmi._ "

She narrowed her eyes. "That...wouldn't be the first place I would have picked, but who am I to argue?" She closed her laptop as Baymax attempted to come into the office. "Is there something I can help you with?"

" _I require entry into your quarters; however, it appears that I am too large to fit in your doorway,"_ Baymax said. " _I will deflate."_

Granville sighed, pulling a remote from her desk. "That won't be necessary." She pressed the button on top, and the doorway began moving slightly outward, making room for the over-sized robot.

" _I was not aware that the doorway to your office was able to change its size."_

"After everything that's happened on campus over the past semester, I've had to make a few...accommodations. Surely, you understand." She put the remote away, turning her attention back to him. "In any case, what is your business?"

" _I am here to give you something._ "

"At whose behest?"

Having finally come through the door, Baymax made his way to her desk. _"At mine._ "

Granville paused as Baymax held out his hand, palm facing up. A circle started glowing in it, a small thumb drive coming up through the newly formed hole. "I'm afraid I don't understand, Baymax. What is this?"

" _This is some of the information that Hiro and I managed to recover from my encounter with Aken-comma-Bob."_

She froze. She was not expecting this. "Why are you giving me this? Should this not go to-"

" _According to current medical records, Mr. Aken had no living relatives,"_ Baymax raised a finger in response. _"As for the police, no one else is aware of the fact that Obake and Aken-comma-Bob are the same person. As a health care companion, it is imperative to pass all relevant information to the next of kin."_

Granville raised an eyebrow at the robot. "And you believed me to be that person?"

Baymax gently set the drive onto her desk. _"As his former professor, and the current head of the school, I believe that it would be only appropriate for you to have this. I believe Hiro also made a promise to keep you informed with our search."_

"He did. But why is he not here? Why have you come in his place?"

The robot said nothing, simply nodding to the drive. Granville took it into her hand and inserted it into her computer. "There's not really much on here."

" _That is true. It is not much, but it is pertinent."_

She clicked the only media link in the folder. She opened it up on her computer...and waited.

And watched.

For the next few minutes, nothing else could be heard in the office except for the video being played. Baymax stared, not blinking, at Granville, who was undoubtedly paying very close attention to the past conversation between the robot and Obake.

She finished the video and closed her computer. Baymax saw she was shaking her head, her eyes starting to glisten.

" _Tissue?"_

Granville took the auto-dispensed tissue from his hand, wiping her eyes. "He was a very gifted student," she whispered. "Miles ahead of everyone else in his class."

" _Agreed,"_ Baymax replied. _"He and Hiro have very similar brain structure and activity."_

She tapped her desk, lost in thought. Baymax stood silent, not wanting to disturb her.

"Baymax."

" _Professor?"_

Granville got up from her chair, turning to look out the window again. "May I ask you a medical question?"

" _I shall try my best."_

"Do you believe whatever you scanned inside his brain...truly had an effect on his actions?"

The room was silent as Baymax pondered the possibilities. She wasn't sure which answer she wanted, but was eager to hear what the robot had to say.

" _It is almost impossible to conclude whether his disability had an affect on his actions, past or present. If I had a proper bio-scan and access to past medical records, I could come to a different conclusion."_

"What do _you_ think?"

Baymax cocked his head. _"I am...sorry?"_

"I am asking for your opinion on the matter. No records. No procedures. What is your personal opinion about the situation?"

He blinked once. _"That is an interesting question. I was built as a personal healthcare companion. My opinions normally follow the recommendations built into my code. I have never had a patient ask for a personal opinion."_

"But as a healthcare unit, surely those procedures built into you by Tadashi are partially based off of opinion?" Granville retorted. "Doctors. Physicians. Since you are one, regardless of the fact that you are not human, you are also entitled to one as well."

" _...I had not thought about that circumstance before. Allow me to calculate for just a moment."_

Baymax's eyes started glowing multiple colors as Granville returned to her chair. She wasn't sure which way the outcome was going to be. One of them was going to make her feel better. The other would not.

" _I am finished."_

She hadn't even noticed him return to normal. "And?" she asked, almost pleadingly.

" _Without any prior records, and with the limited exposure that I had, it is impossible for me to tell whether his condition had an effect on his behavior."_

"That's...what you said before."

" _However,"_ Baymax continued, _"If I have learned anything from being around Hiro and my friends, it is that eventually a person must take responsibility for their actions. You have taken responsibility for your student's accident. At some point in time, Aken-comma-Bob would need to do the same. He did not."_ Baymax brought up a finger again. " _This conclusion, however, is merely my...opinion. Other individuals certainly would have different ones._ "

Granville smiled. "Thank you, Baymax, for your opinion."

" _Was it the one you desired?"_

"It...was the one that was given, so I will respect it."

Baymax turned back to the door, ready to rejoin his caretaker.

"Mr. Hamada was never going to show me this, was he?"

He turned back around to her, her computer open again. _"I do not understand."_

"Baymax, you may be a great healthcare companion, but you're not very good at covering your tracks." Granville pointed to her screen. "Your documents are written as copies in the code and the file name. You should probably remove that next time you try to do that."

" _That is helpful advice. I shall make a note to remember that."_

"And Baymax?"

" _Yes?"_

Granville closed the window as she straightened up.

"Tell Mr. Hamada there are perfectly good places on the _ground_ to take his fellow classmates to. There are several I can recommend, if he so desires."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** (Notice I never said _which_ Friday I said this would be uploaded. Anyways.)

I have a confession to make.

I don't really know how to write Baymax.

It's the main reason why I've either excluded him or limited his presence in a lot of the BH6 stories I write. I will probably continue to do that in future fics, unless the actual story's focused on him.

And now you know why Hiro wanted to keep that video away from Granville. I think she absolutely feels responsible for making Obake into who he was in the serious. Of course, if Hiro had his way, she would never find out about his temporal growth/cancer/whatever.

And that's the part where I feel I can write Baymax: making him decide to either respect his primary caretaker's wishes, or fulfill the duties of a healthcare companion. Especially in this sense, because Granville still feels somewhat responsible for Obake's condition. Maybe other author's wouldn't write that, given we don't know the depths of his programming. It's an interesting conundrum to write.

Oh, I'm sorry. I keep hearing the people reading this story saying "Wait? Why are Hiro and Karmi on a blimp high above the city? What shenanigans are they up to?"

That, ladies and gentlemen, will be the finale of _Clean Up_. As I've mentioned in the last chapter, I had other chapters I wanted to add, but in the interest of time, those will be folded into other stories. A nice, big Hiro/Karmi chapter takes a lot of focus.

As always, read and review if you like. Until next time, everyone.


	7. Trust

_**Disclaimer:** Big Hero 6 The Series is owned by Disney Animation. I also don't own blimps, nanoreceptors, or whatever musical artist I'm pretending to portray in this chapter._

 _Oh, I also have a somewhat lengthy note at the end of the story, so I would probably recommend reading that. But onward._

* * *

 _ **Chapter 7 – Trust**_

Late nights at the Institute were becoming all too commonplace.

That's what happens when you're the youngest genius ever to be enrolled there.

Er... _second_ youngest. Still had to remember that even after all this time.

Karmi had her purse by her side and her phone out, waiting for her bus to come to take her home. Normally, she would just walk home, music blaring in her ears, and enjoy the evening, but at this late hour, she knew her parents would want her at the house as soon as possible.

Thus, public transportation.

She was busy browsing through all of the photos she took at the statue ceremony. Everyone knows that collages don't make themselves. She needed some good pictures to complete her latest one.

Captain Cutie looking regal behind the podium. Captain Cutie deep in conversation with his team. Hiro watching his earthquake project crumble into a million-

Wait.

Karmi frowned as the classroom picture came up in her album. As always, whenever she needed some time to herself, that kid always seemed to show up at the most inopportune time. Her thumb hovered over the trashcan icon…

But she stopped herself.

Her mind went back to Christmas, when he was two seconds away from kissing her. Half of her wanted to throttle him for being so brazen, and the other half...well, she didn't want to pay attention to what the other half was thinking.

Ugh. She didn't need this right now. Between needing to hit her deadline with the next phase of her nanoreceptor project, her other projects at SFIT, and whatever was going on with Genius Boy, she didn't have the time to think about anything else.

Especially not the bus she needed to take passing her stop and going around the corner.

...Wait. Again.

Karmi's head snapped up as she stopped whatever song she was on. Yup, there was the bus, going straight down the hill. She swore under her breath as she checked the digital bus route on the stop.

Cue more swearing.

 _There's not another bus coming for a half hour,_ she thought to herself. _Looks like I **am**_ _going to have to walk._

"Problem?"

Karmi wheeled around to see a large man standing behind her, two other guys flanking his sides. The leather jackets each of them wore, as well as the looks of opportunity on their faces didn't symbolize anything good.

"Nope," she said, trying to keep her voice steady. "I'm fine, thanks."

"Aww, that's a shame," the main guy replied. "It looked like you were in a little pickle there. Maybe me and my boys could be of some assistance to you."

"I think I'm OK, but thanks for the offer." Karmi turned to leave, but one of the lackeys cut her off.

"I don't think you heard the man, girly. It isn't very womanly-like of you to say no to a man's help." He made a motion to grab her arm…

SLAP!

Her right hand came in contact with his head, making him stumble back a few steps. Regaining his composure, he dove forward...only to completely fall to the ground untouched.

"What?"

Karmi turned toward the other two, more nanoreceptors in her hand. "Today is _really_ not my day, so do either one of you want some of what your buddy got? It'll make me feel a whole lot better—Hey!"

Apparently, in her efforts to properly modify the receptors for everyday use, she lowered the strength of the dosage too much, because the man on the ground was able to grab had her ankle. Karmi swiped at him to fasten another one on, but too late. The leader had her wrist in a tight grip.

"That's too bad, girly. You should really know when to accept our help." He wrenched her purse away from her and started to sort through it. "I wonder if you have anything good in here."

"Let her go."

The sudden outburst got the attention of the quartet. "Who's there?" the leader yelled out.

A shadow stretched out under the lone streetlamp until the tip reached the group. The mystery man stepped into the light…

 _Oh my God,_ Karmi thought. _It's him. It's really him. It's-_

"It's Captain Cutie! It's that guy from the newspapers. From Big Hero 6!"

Hiro shook his head slightly, an exasperated look on his face. "Of _course_ it landed in the papers. Why would I expect anything else?" he whispered to himself. Raising his voice, he yelled out to the muggers. "I'm not going to say it again. Let her go."

"Oh yeah?" The leader tightened his grip on her wrist. "And what're you going to do about it?"

"Oh, _I'm_ not going to do anything."

The man smiled.

" _He_ will."

The sudden shaking of the ground caused the three men to turn on the spot. Now standing right next to them was Baymax, armored up and eyes glowing.

" _Hello, gentlemen. I would suggest that you vacate the premises."_

…

"AAAAHHH!"

The two men still standing ran off into the darkness, the purse thrown into the air. The man still on the ground also tried to make off, but his progress was stopped by Baymax. Hiro held out his hand, and the purse flawlessly fell into it. "Man, I wish it was always this easy."

" _What should we do with this unlawful citizen?"_

"Just take him to the police station," Hiro said, helping Karmi off of the ground. "They'll know what to do." As he flew off, he turned his attention toward his rescueé. "Hey."

"Hey."

The staring contest continued for a moment before Hiro remembered he had her purse still. "Oh!" She held the purse toward her. "I believe this is yours."

"Thanks." Now that the craziness of the situation was dying down, her nervousness around her hero was boiling over. "How did you know I was here?"

He tapped the side of his helmet. "Red Panda's got a crime scanner on him. We were in close proximity anyway." He looked back at the direction where his robot flew off. "You think that guy will be able to feel his face in the morning?"

"Maybe."

"...Are you OK? No offense, but you're not acting like your normal hyper self around me. You're breathing normally, at the very least. I didn't do anything, did I?"

"No, it's not you. I just need to relax for a little bit. I...have had a lot on my mind. And this obviously didn't help." Karmi slung her purse over her shoulder. "I need to go. Maybe I'll see you around." She turned to walk away…

And felt the weight of the padded glove on her shoulder.

"It wasn't that long ago that someone told me that they would be there if I ever needed to talk. I might just take them up on that offer. That is," Hiro added with a small smirk, "If you're up for it."

Karmi blushed. "You really mean that?"

"I do. I even have a place where we can go. If you're interested."

* * *

Nowhere in the conversation did the place infer they had to fly.

Karmi was grasping Hiro by the waist, desperately handing on for dear life. Red Panda was making his way toward one of the advert blimps strewn high above the town. Yes, the view was amazing and she was with her self-proclaimed love of her life, but the terror of being several hundred feet up in the air was not lost on her.

"How do you do this on a regular basis?"

"The Mag-Locks definitely help," he said as they landed on the large purple blimp. "Oh, and also not looking down too much."

He helped her down off of Baymax's back and motioned to his companion. "Hey, Red Panda, do you mind running a scan around the city?"

" _Would you like me to do it from here?"_

"I was thinking more along the lines of..." He twirled his finger in the air.

" _An aerial route? I will comply."_ The robot launched off of the blimp, and with a spiral, went speeding off downtown.

Karmi sat down, folding her legs, Hiro taking a spot next to her. "I like coming up here sometimes. It's away from the city, it's quiet, and I can clear my head. Hopefully that can be something you can do-"

He heard the faint sound of a phone and turned to Karmi, who was busy looking at something.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh." She didn't notice that her actions had garnered his attention. "I just thought that...it would be nice if...we had some music going."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "That's a little...odd, but OK. What were you thinking?"

She hit the start button, and the song began playing.

Hold on. This was one he recognized. Wasabi would play it on the way to school. Normally, Hiro would have his own music playing, but he would catch the artist every once in a while. Hiro bent over to take a look at her phone…

"I wasn't aware that I was special enough to have my name on an entire playlist."

Karmi looked up at him, a blush on her cheeks. "I have...a few."

He scanned down the remainder of the songs. "Also with so many...what's his stage name? The Weekday or whatever?"

"Something like that."

Trying desperately to put that out of his mind, Hiro decided to switch gears. "So I haven't seen you since a few days ago. What's been going on?"

For the next few minutes, all of her anxieties came pouring out. Hiro, to his credit, stayed silent and listened. Nothing was particularly groundbreaking; after all, he was aware of most of it.

But not what was coming next.

"Is there anyone that can help you on this project of yours?" he had just asked. "There has to be someone at your school that can do something for you."

Karmi rested her hand on her fist. "There's this one person I know, but..."

Uh oh.

"Who is he?"

"Some young kid named Hiro. He's some genius who joined a few months ago. Robotics. He came in on his white horse and was all like (she grabbed her phone and started tapping it aggressively) 'Look at me, I'm the best' and all that. It's just...Grr."

Karmi stayed quiet for a moment, and Hiro was hesitant to jump in. Surely that wasn't everything she took away from the semester.

"And then he got better, I guess. I wouldn't exactly call us friends, but..."

Hiro frowned.

"I know he means well, but sometimes he can just be so..."

"Annoying."

"Yes."

"Egotistical."

"Yes!"

"Cracked?"

"Oh my goodness, it's like you're reading my mind!"

She didn't need to know there was a reason why it seemed like he was psychic. He had heard her say all of those words to his face. But enough semantics. "I'm sure he doesn't mean to be like that. Maybe he just...likes you."

Karmi scoffed. "Duh. Of _course_ he likes me. It's not exactly a secret."

"OK, calm down now."

"What?"

"I mean..." Hiro had to catch himself. "He wouldn't want to be around you if he didn't want to be friends, right?"

"I'm not very good at having friends."

The tone was such a departure from five seconds ago that Hiro was immediately concerned. Karmi's shoulders were slouched down in defeat. "Every time I try, something goes wrong. I'm just going to end up alone again."

"Hey. Don't be so hard on yourself. You're friends with me, right?"

Even his words of encouragement didn't seem to cheer her up. "I don't even know you."

Uh oh.

"But maybe..."

Oh dear.

"Hold on, Karmi," he interrupted, holding his hand up. "I already know where you're going with this. I can't tell you who I am."

"Why can't you?"

She scooted her body over to Hiro, who was now internally panicking.

"Don't you trust me?"

She was now entirely way too close, her hand now coming to rest on the side of his helmet. She was so near, he could see his reflection in her eyes.

Those dark brown eyes...glistening in the starlight…

OK, this has to stop.

Hiro brought his gloved hand up to hers, gently grabbing it and bringing it down. "It's...not that I don't trust you. I do. It's just that..."

"Just what?"

It was getting progressively harder for him to maintain his superhero voice. "You've already been kidnapped once by Momakase. And that was because you were writing stuff about the team. Imagine what would happen if people, especially bad ones, find out you know who I am. That would put you in a lot of danger."

"I can handle it. Do you remember earlier? With those guys? You were there for me."

"That's different. Three random thugs is different than a professional assassin coming after you. Imagine something worse."

"But you're always there for me."

Hiro heard the slight shake in her voice and squeezed her hand in response. "Karmi, I can't be everywhere you are. We were lucky when you got kidnapped. Also tonight. But what if we're too late? What if…?"

Oh boy. This was going to get awkward very quickly. Not that it already wasn't, but still. He had to avoid that. "I'm not going to put you through that. I _won't_ put you through that. Maybe, one day, when all of this is over...but not now."

Karmi's look softened, and for a moment he thought he had broke her. But her voice was steady as she responded.

"You're right." She withdrew her hand and pulled her legs to her chest. "You're absolutely right. I don't know what I was thinking. It would put both of us in a bad situation. And I don't want to do that to you either."

Hiro gently laid his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

She looked at him again with a smile. "You don't have to apologize. I understand; I really do."

He felt like he had to add something. "But hey! Just because you don't know who I am doesn't mean we're not friends. We are. And that guy from your school is too. I'm sure he just has his own way of showing it."

A beep rang through the air, and Hiro pressed the comm on his helmet. "Yeah, I'm here." He nodded his head in response to the unknown statement. "OK, I'm on my way now. Be there in a minute." He ended the comm as he stood up. "I have to go. Duty calls. Is there any place I can drop you off?"

"There's a little coffee place near my house. You can put me there."

"What? You don't want me to see where you live?" Hiro joked.

Karmi's smile was the biggest one all night. "Hey, everyone has their secrets. Not even the fabled Captain Cutie had earned that yet."

"Fair enough."

As Baymax came rocketing back from his patrol, Karmi was anxious again, but on the happy side now. Maybe at some point in time she could continue to get to know her Captain without getting lightheaded.

"I do, by the way."

She turned to him, his eyes affixed to the sky. "Hmm?"

"I _do_ trust you." He held up an armored hand toward her, palm up. "Do you trust me?"

Karmi looked at his offering and then to his eyes. Through his visor, she could see the sincerity in his eyes. It made her like him even more. She took his hand and grinned.

"Always."

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTE:** (Yes, the Weeknd exists in this Marvel Universe. So sue me. But don't actually sue me, Mr. Tesfaye.)

Hoo boy, this one was a doozy. Serves me right to leave most of the writing for this at the last minute. I personally don't feel that this is my best writing, but I wanted to get something out. Maybe I'll go back and redo a couple of things. Speaking of which...

I do hope that I didn't write these two _too_ much out of character. I know that Karmi (at least in terms of Season 1) can barely be in his company without declaring her love for Captain Cutie. Likewise, Hiro can't deal with it without plugging his ears or running into giant armored robots. But, I like the situation that might arise from what I've written before, so maybe they can mutually come to an understanding.

That, and I love writing superbly awkward situations.

This is the last chapter of _Clean Up_. These little look-ins dealt with the _direct_ aftermath of Obake's defeat. Moving forward, the stories that I plan on doing will build off of this stuff. I do know that Season 2 _might_ drop in the summer, so it'll probably mess my fan-tinuity anyways, but oh well.

I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed and read this story on all three platforms I have it on (this site, DevArt, & AO3). This was the story that got me back into the swing of things after a very difficult year (and in some ways a very difficult present), so I'm glad you decided to stay along for the ride. I hope you'll be just as enthused with what I have coming up.

Read and review, if you like. Ladies and gents...until next time.


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